Rolling mill



w. H. MELANEY.

ROLLING MILL.

APPHCATION FILED 0CT. 27.19!9.

Patented Feb. 21, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

WQH. MELANEY.

ROLLING MILL.

APPHCATION FILED 00127,!919.

1,401,334, Patented Feb. 21, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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TES

WILLIAM H. MELANEY, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA.

ROLLING MILL.

Specification of Letters 'latent.

Patented Feb. 21, 1922..

Application filed October 27, 1919. Serial No. 333,728.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. ME- LANEY,'a citizen of the United States and resident of Pittsburgh, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rolling Mills; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to rolling mills, and is particularly adapted for the rolling of sheet metal, although I do not wish to limit it to this particular product.

In mills of this character, as heretofore constructed, where a two-high mill with a balanced top roll was used, it was necessary to use a stand of pinions vto transmit the power to the top roll. This required extra space for the stand of pinions, and at the same time consumed a great deal of power for driving same. These pinions were constructed with teeth strong enough to withstand the actual rolling of the metal, as the top roll, as'well as the bottom roll, was positively driven.

In another type of mills of this character the top roll is not balanced and simply rests upon the lower .roll and is primarily driven by the friction between it and the bottom roll, which is positively driven until the metal enters between the rolls whereupon it is driven by the friction of the metal passing between it and the bottom roll. The insertion of the metal into a mill of this character required the top roll to jump when the metal was introduced to the full amount of the thickness of metal to be delivered therefrom. This jumping of the top roll caused very severe racking strains upon the housing and rolls by reason of the hammer blows administered to the adjusting screws, and said adjusting screws became finally stoved up or broken.

The object of my invention is to provide a mill in which the top and bottom rolls are positively driven without the use of an extra stand of pinions, and at the same time provision is made whereby the top roll is automatically released, so that it can travel at any speed the bottom roll would drive it at, while the metal is passing through.

To these ends my invention comprises the novel features hereinafter set forth and claimed.'

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a rolling mill embodymg my invention; Fig. 2 is an end view of same; Figs. 3 and 4 are views similar to F lgs. 1 and 2 of a modified form; Fig. 5 is a sectional detail of the gear and clutch driving mechanism. Fig. 6 is a detail of the intermediate gear carrying sector; and Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view of a further modified form of mill.

In the drawing, the numeral 2 designates the housings proper which are mounted on the shoe-plates 3 in the usual manner by the T- headed bolts engaging the like shaped channels in said shoe-plates.

Mounted in the usual manner is the lower roll 6 which is positively driven through coupling-box 7 and spindle 8. The extended neck 6 of the roll 6 is provided with the gear wheel 9 which is keyed thereon.

The upper roll 10 is likewise mounted in carrylng-blocks 11 which slide up and down in guides 12 in the housin The extended neck 13 of the top-roll is a so provided with a gear 14 loosely mounted to revolve upon said neck independently of the rotating of the roll. The gear-wheel 14 has integral therewith the clutch-member 15 which is adapted to engage the slidable clutch-member 16 keyed to the extended neck-portion 13 of the top roll. A spring 17 is interposed between the clutch-member 16 and the plate 18 secured to the end of the neck extension 13, said spring normally forcing the clutch members 15 and 16 into interlocking engagement, so that under normal conditions the gear-wheel 9 through the intermediate gears to be described drives the upper roll 10.

These intermediate gears 19 and 20 are carried by the swinging sector or member 21, which is forked to receive the gears which are mounted on the studs 22. The swinging sector or member 21 is pivotally suspended by the pin 23 from the pad 24 which is secured to the housing.

Mounted on the extended neck-portion 13 of the top roll 10 is the spacing-plate 25 which slides loosely on said neck-portion and extends down and is connected to the stud 26 between the two pinions 19 and 20 on the swinging sector 21. The object of this plate is to retain the sector in position so that the gears 19 and 20 will engage the teeth of the gears 9 and 14 approximately at the pitch circles of said gears. From the above, it is apparent that if the top roll is loweredthe spacing plate 25 will automatically swing out the pinion sector 21 keeping the pinions 19 and 20 still engaged with the gears 9 and 14 at approximately their pitch circles, thus permitting any reasonable adjustment of said roll without throwing the pinions out of mesh with said gears.

For lowering the bearing-blocks 11 I employ the ordinary screws 27 which pass down through a nut in the top of the housing. The upper ends of these screws are provided with spanner-wheels 28, and connected to said spanner-wheels are the spanners 29 by means of which the wheels 28 are turned to lower the top roll. This may also be accomplished by the ordinary handwheels and pinions.

The top roll is raised when the screw is reversed by means of carrying-rods 30 resting upon springs 31 which are retained on a yoke 32 suspended by the bolts 33 from the bottom of the housing, or by means of the usual weight and lever as generally used, the advantage of the spring-bar construction being that no provision has to be made in the pit for the weights and levers, and as the balancing arrangement is self-contained with the housing, the housing can be moved anywhere on the bed plate without interference. The tension of these springs 31 can be adjusted by screwing up the nuts 34 on the suspension bolts 33 to any tension desired.

The upper roll 10 is preferably of slightly smaller diameter than the lower roll 6 and is always out of contact with the lower roll for the purpose more fully hereinafter set forth. i

In Figs. 3, and 4: I have illustrated a modified form of my invention in which the gearwheels 35 and 36 are used to drive these rolls positively without the use of" intermediate gears as contained in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawing. In other respects the structure is thesame as that previously described.

In Fig. 7 I have illustrated a modified form of spring-balance for the top roll where no previous provision has been made on the housing for balancing. In thiscase semi-elliptic springs 37 are employed and seats 38 are notched into each side of the housing to receive the ends of the springs. Resting on the springs is a carrier 39 for the top roll. In like manner these springs 37 act to'normally lift the top roll clear of the bottom one when the adjusting screws 40 are reversed.

In the operation of rolling where the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is employed, the top and bottom rolls are driven through the gears 9 and 14 at an equal number of revolutions, while no metal is between the rolls, thus making it easy for the metal to enter. When, however, the metal has en-' tered between these rolls, the metal itself will drive the top roll at exactly the same peripheral speed as the, bottom roll, and as the top roll is of slightly less diameter than the bottom roll, it will have a little more than one revolution to each revolution of the bottom roll, and as the gears were driving these two rolls at exactly the same number of revolutions, it becomes necessary for the gear 14 on the top roll to slip partly around the neck of said roll to compensate for the difference in rotation. This is permitted by means of the clutch members 15 and 16, because when the top roll moves faster than the gear would drive it, the slidable clutch member 16 due to the construction of its teeth, backs away from contact of its jaws permitting the jaws to open appreciably relieving all rolling strain on the gears. If this rotation was continued long enough, the clutch would entirely back out of mesh but at all times permits the top roll to run at a speed independentof the gear 14:. As soon as the piece has passed entirely through the rolls, the spring 17 forces the clutch members back into mesh permitting the gears to again take up their action of positively driving the top roll.

It has been found impractical in finishing sheet mills to have any spindle connection from an, outside source of power to the top roll, as this tends to pull the top roll out of parallel with the bottom roll and interferes with the straight delivery of the sheet. Therefore it has heretofore been absolutely necessary to use a friction-driven top .roll

driven through the bottom roll by contact therewith to prevent displacement of the top roll. By my invention I am enabled to keep the rolls always out of contact with each other and I do not depend upon the friction drive imparted by the bottom roll to the top roll.

By my arrangement the instant the sheet enters the rolls, the gears are entirely out of commission so far as driving the rolls is concerned, and the gears do not have any action tending toward accelerating or retarding the speed of the rolls in relation to each other, but provide the same result as if the rolls were driven by contact with each other with no gears present.

While I have illustrated and described the upper roll as of slightly less diameter than the lower roll for the reasons above specified, it is apparent that rolls of exactly the same diameter could be used. i

What I claim is:

1. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing, of a lower roll, an upper-roll of smaller diameter, said rolls being always out of contact, a gear directly mounted on said lower roll. a loosely mounted gear on the upper roll driven by said first gear, and a Sllp clutch, one member connected to said second-named gear and the other connected to said top roll.

2. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing, of a lower roll, an upper roll of smaller diameter, said rolls being always out of contact, a gear on said lower roll, a gear mounted directly and loosely on the upper roll, said gear being driven by said first-named gear, a slip clutch, one member of which is connected to said second-named gear and the other connected to said upper roll, and a spring for normally holding said clutch members in engagement.

3. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing. of a lower roll, an upper roll, said rolls being always held out of contact with each other, gears mounted on the roll necks meshing with each other, one of said gears being loosely mounted, connections between the other gear and suitable power and means carried by the said upper roll Whereby when the metal is being rolled the friction created by the metal passing between the rolls relieves the gears of practically all rolling load developed in the reduction of the metal. 4. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing, of a lower roll, an upper roll, connections for driving the said upper roll from the said lower roll, and a toothed clutch interposed in the said driving connections and having both its driving and driven members carried by said upper roll.

5. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing, of a lower roll, an upper roll of smaller diameter than the said lower roll,

gears mounted on the roll necks and meshing with each other, one of the said gears being loosely mounted, and a toothed clutch carried by said upper roll for connecting the said loosely mounted gear to drive the roll on which the said loose gear is mounted.

6. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing. of a lower roll, an upper roll of smaller diameter, said rolls being always i out of contact, a gear directly mounted on said lower roll, a gear mounted directly and loosely on the said upper roll, said gear being driven by said first gear, and means for automatically releasing said gear mechanism immediately when the metal enters said rolls, whereby said top roll is permitted to be driven through the bottom roll by the friction of said metal between said rolls.

7. In a rolling mill, the combination with a housing, of a lower roll, an upper roll of smaller diameter, said rolls being always out of contact, a gear directly mounted on said lower roll. a gear mounted directly and loosely on said upper roll, said gear being driven by said first gear, and a clutch associated with said loose gear and carried wholly on the said upper roll for releasing said upper roll from said gear immediately when metal enters between said rolls.

In testimony whereof, I the said WILLIAM H. MELANEY, have hereunto set my hand.

WILLIAM H. MELANE Y.

Vitnesses:

Ron'r. D. TOTTEN, J OHN F. WILL. 

